The perfect galette cannot be created without a flaky, buttery galette dough as your base. This base recipe is perfect for both sweet or savory galette recipes. Learn how to make the perfect dough for galette every time with my foolproof recipe.
Why you'll love it
This is a quick and easy free form pie dough that you can use for any occasion. You can use it for savory galettes and sweet galettes alike. it comes out super buttery and flaky with a perfectly golden brown crust. The recipe makes a single galette and is perfect for making this blueberry galette, but you can easily double the recipe to make an extra large galette, or several smaller ones.
- You only need simple basic ingredients
- It takes under 5 minutes to make
- Creates a buttery and flaky crust
Galette vs crostata
A galette is a free-form pie with a super flaky crust that can be sweet or savory. It is a rolled-out dough topped with sweet or savory filling and the edges of the dough are folding in over some of the filling. Crostatas are the same as a galette, it is simply the Italian term for this flaky pastry.
Ingredients
- Flour - For the best results use all-purpose flour. You might be able to use gluten-free flour blends that are a 1 to 1 replacement for regular flour
- Sugar - I like to use sugar in both sweet and savory galettes. Like the salt, it highlights flavors without actually making the dough sweet. You can omit it completely, if desired.
- Butter - Butter play a crucial role in making galettes. I recommend a high quality butter that has a higher butterfat percentage. You can usually find them labeled as European-style. You should use unsalted butter so you can control the salt level, which should not be very high even for a savory pastry
- Water - It is very important that you use ice cold water. You do not want the temperature of your ingredients to be raised by using room temperature water
How to make
There are two main ways to make your dough. A pastry cutter or food processor. I recommend a food processor because it allows you to use colder and even frozen butter more easily, but it is not necessary.
- Gather your dry ingredients into a large bowl or the bowl of your food processor.
- Use a pastry cutter or pulse the food processor about 5 - 6 times to cut the cold butter into your flour mixture until everything comes together into coarse crumbs the size of peas.
- Add in the water one tablespoon at a time and mix it in. Add only just enough water that everything comes together when you press it with your hands.
- Transfer everything to a sheet of plastic wrap and form into a disc. Wrap tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
- Place the chilled dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out with a rolling pin until it is about the size of a 12-inch circle. It does not need to be a perfect circle. Add the filling and leave a 1 to 2-inch border so you can fold the border over the filling.
- Brush the folded over dough with an egg wash and bake until golden brown
Amanda's expert tips
The most important way to ensure you get the best results is to make sure you are correctly measuring your ingredients, particularly the all-purpose flour. You should fluff up the flour and then spoon it into your measuring cup then sweep of the excess. If you want to make sure you get consistent results, you can convert the recipe to metric and use a kitchen scale.
In order to get a flaky crust you must use cold ingredients and keep the ingredients as cold as possible. You can even chill the flour before you begin. The reason you need to use cold ingredients, and especially cold butter is because the butter will heat quickly and create steam which will make air pockets within the dough. If the butter is too warm, it will just melt and not create steam which will leave you with greasy dough and butter leaking out onto your baking sheet.
It sometimes helps to let the dough sit on your lightly floured work surface for a few minutes before rolling it out to prevent cracks. If cracks do form, however, you can simply press the dough together to seal the crack.
This is meant to be a rustic sort of baked good, so you typically do not have a perfect circle and the edges are traditionally not perfect. If you prefer something a little more polished, you can use a pizza cutter to cut the edges to make them rounded and even.
Variations
You can do a lot to the galette dough to customize it for a sweet galette recipe or a savory galette recipe.
- Increase the amount of sugar to make the dough even sweeter for dessert galettes
- Mix in a teaspoon of your favorite savory herbs or powdered onion and garlic
- Include spices like cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg for a sweet autumnal feel
- Add heat with crushed red peppers or cayenne
Recipe FAQs
The biggest contributor to a soggy bottom is using filling that has too much water content with not though thickener. This is especially troublesome with a berry galette or juicy tomato slices. I recommend straining out excess juices when possible and adding cornstarch to your filling to thicken the juices.
Soggy bottoms can also happen when the dough is too soft and warm before baking. The dough should be as cold as possible before putting into the hot oven. I recommend chilling the dough after rolling it out and then also placing the galette with the filling in the freezer while the oven preheats.
You can make your dough well ahead of time long before you even have a galette recipe in mind. Make your galette as usual and wrap in plastic wrap and then place in an airtight container. Store in the freezer for up to a month and thaw in the refrigerator just long enough that it is soft enough to roll out. You can also leave it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days before using.
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Recipe Card
Galette Dough
Ingredients
- 11/4 cups all -purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter cubed
- ¼ cup ice water as needed
Instructions
- Gather your dry ingredients into a large bowl or the bowl of your food processor.
- Use a pastry cutter or pulse the food processor about 5 - 6 times to cut the cold butter into your flour mixture until everything comes together into coarse crumbs the size of peas.
- Add in the water one tablespoon at a time and mix. Add only just enough water that everything comes together when you press it with your hands.
- Transfer everything to a sheet of plastic wrap and form into a disc. Wrap tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
- Place the chilled dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out with a rolling pin until it is about the size of a 12-inch circle. It does not need to be a perfect circle.
- Add the filling and leave a 1 to 2-inch border so you can fold the border over the filling.
- Brush the folded over dough with an egg wash and bake until golden brown
Notes
- You might not need all of the water, depending on the humidity of your kitchen.
- Dough can be made ahead of time and left in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to a month. Thaw in the refrigerator.
- Allow the dough to rest for a few minutes at room temperature before rolling out to minimize shrinkage or cracks in the dough. Use your fingers to press together any cracks.
- Leave the galette with the fillings in the freezer while the oven preheats. Only brush with the egg wash and top with your sugar or anything else you may use just prior to placing in the oven.
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